Japan Press Weekly

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2007 October 24 - 30 [SDF]

475 ex-defense bureaucrats parachuting into 15 major arms firms

Akahata has learned that the number of former Defense Ministry officials who have retired and now hold positions in the top 15 arms contractors totals 475 and that those companies made large donations to the Liberal Democratic Party.

Amid revelations of cozy ties between former Vice Defense Minister Moriya Takemasa and Yamada Corporation, an arms trader, collusion among politicians, bureaucrats, and business over arms contracts must be thoroughly investigated.

In FY 2006, the Defense Ministry awarded these 15 companies contracts of 907.6 billion yen, about 70 percent of the total value of defense contracts.

As of April 2006, those ex-defense officials holding posts in 13 out of 15 leading military contractors included 98 in Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, 62 in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., and 59 in Hitachi, Ltd.

Each of the top three corporations that won contracts of more than 100 billion yen employed on average 69.7 former bureaucrats. This table below shows that the more retired officials a company employs, the more government contracts it wins.

In FY 2006, 11 out of those top 15 defense contractors gave the LDP a total 186.9 million yen in donation, including 30 million yen from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. alone.
- Akahata, October 28, 2007